Tour de France

[RowerB]

Yesterday saw the virtual elimination of Mayo as an overall contender. He crashed near the front of the peloton with a number of riders. Immediately the Euskaltel-Euskadi team dedicated themselves to trying to pace Mayo back to the main group.

News of Mayo’s fall quickly reached the main contenders and US Postal, T-Mobile and Phonak pushed the pace at the front in the style of a team time trial. (We’ve seen this before. In 1999 after the causeway debacle, Zulle was left 6 mins behind the peloton, which was frantically driven by US Postal and Once.)

Mike Smith, the stupid Eurosport commentator, couldn’t understand why the Euskaltels couldn’t catch the peloton. What a moron.

Mayo finished almost 4 mins down and with his team tired and despondent, he is likely to lose another 5 mins in today’s team time trial.

I’m disappointed that one of the main races favourites is out of contention before they’ve even seen a mountain.

I just needed that rant.

EDIT: The Euskaltels had a good team time trial and with the new system to limit losses of teams, they only lost 1min 20secs, so all is not lost. We’ll see what happens in the hills.

[protoman2k1]

Does Vuitton have anything to do with the Tour de France or is it just the Vuitton cup?

[teeny]

not really following it that intensly yet. But I will when they hit the mountains.
I'm hoping either Armstrong or Hamilton will win, and that Virenque will the dotted jersey this year.

[RowerB]

Originally Posted by protoman2k1

Does Vuitton have anything to do with the Tour de France or is it just the Vuitton cup?

I’ve no idea, sorry.

Originally Posted by teeny

I'm hoping either Armstrong or Hamilton will win,

Yanks always have a hard luck story… I had cancer … I rode last year’s tour with a broken collarbone … I got shot in the back. They make me sick.

I’d like to see Mayo win, but any European would be OK.

[teeny]

Originally Posted by RowerB

Yanks always have a hard luck story… I had cancer … I rode last year’s tour with a broken collarbone … I got shot in the back. They make me sick

wtf?? you may not like them, but damn the argument is bad for not doing so.

[haku]

Originally Posted by protoman2k1

Does Vuitton have anything to do with the Tour de France or is it just the Vuitton cup?

Vuitton has nothing to do with the Tour de France.
Vuitton is a luxury brand and they sponsor luxury events, the Tour de France is a popular event and Vuitton would never come near it. The people who follow the Tour de France are not exactly the kind of people who buy Vuitton products.


I hope someone else than Armstrong is going to win this year, that would be the sixth time for him and he would become the only one to have won six times, and i don't like that. Plus, i would prefer some diversity, those past years watching the Tour de France has been like watching a Formula 1 grand prix, you know who's going to win before it starts, and that's annoying.

[RowerB]

Originally Posted by teeny

wtf?? you may not like them, but damn the argument is bad for not doing so.

OK, so I admit I don’t like them anyway, but having the commentators go on about how heroic they are, every ten seconds, doesn’t help.

Originally Posted by haku

Plus, i would prefer some diversity, those past years watching the Tour de France has been like watching a Formula 1 grand prix, you know who's going to win before it starts, and that's annoying.

Last year things did rather fall into place for Armstrong. Beloki crashed heavily while looking a possible winner and warm dry weather for the final Time Trial would have made things interesting.

All teams knew the new rules governing the Team Time Trial before this year’s tour, but that didn’t stop Bruyneel and Armstrong squealing like stuck pigs, after the event.

EDIT 16/07/04.
First mountain top finish. Mayo lost another minute and Ullrich lost two and a half minutes to Armstrong. Basso looked strong winning the stage. Let’s hope for some hot sunny weather, for the rest of the tour.

EDIT 17/07/04 A bad day in the hills.
Zubeldia, Hamilton and Menchov abandoned, suffering from the effects of previous crashes.
Mayo had a total disaster, trying to abandon at one point, he was only kept going by the encouragement of team mates and is now 45 minutes down overall, out of contention.
Losing another 2½ minutes, Ullrich is nearly seven minutes down now, on today’s stage winner, Armstrong.
The CSC rider Basso seems the only realistic hope of stopping Armstrong winning his sixth tour.

EDIT 20/07/04 Not a good day.
Mayo failed to start this morning.
A good attack by Ullrich on the first category climb was neutralised by the CSCs.
Basso just sat in the main group until the sprint for the line, where Armstrong beat him.
The way commentator Mike Smith is raving on, my TV is in serious danger of getting a brick thrown through the screen.

Hopefully Armstrong will have fifteen punctures, in tomorrow’s individual time trial up L’Alpe d’Huez.

EDIT 21/07/04 A truly awful day.
The tour just went right down the pan. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong today and to make matters worse, my TV set didn’t survive the stage. Now I’m reduced to watching an old TV with messed up colours and unstable picture.

We’ll see what happens in the mountains tomorrow, but I don’t hold out much hope.

EDIT 22/07/04 T-Mobile fail.
Ullrich and Kloden just sat in the main group, refusing to attack on the final climb and although Kloden went for home at the 1Km to go kite, his attack was not committed and he was caught on the line.

Anyway, I hope McEwan keeps his Green jersey tomorrow and wins in Paris on Sunday.

EDIT 24/07/04
McEwan lost the sprint for seventh place to Hushovd. He still has an eleven point lead, but he needs to be watchful at the intermediate sprints and finish in the top four in Paris tomorrow.

EDIT 24/07/04(2)
Basso lost his second place in the time trial.

EDIT 25/07/04
McEwan won the Green jersey which is about the only good thing to come out of this tour.

Originally Posted by haku

Plus, i would prefer some diversity,

It would have been OK with me, if Indurain had won ten tours, but since his last win in 1995, the tour has been won by riders I disliked. I have to say my opinion of Ullrich changed though, seeing the way he battled with Pantani after taking a beating in the mountains.

One disappointing year following another hasn’t put me off the tour. The scenic views, the daily battles to win stages and the occasional acceptable winner of the Green jersey, keep me hooked.


PS . I’m amazed at the response to this thread. Who’d have thought cycling was so popular?

Offtop:
Does anyone living in East Anglia, have a decent TV going cheap?

[RowerB]

One week to go to the start of the 2005 tour. The excitement is building. I think it’s going to be good.

btw. I could not find a way to change the title of the thread to read simply – Tour de France. If a mod could do it that would be great.

[taty994945]

As long as Armstrong doesn't win, all is good.

[spyretto]

Wasn't Armstrong supposed to have retired from the Tour de France? Not that I'm following the event but you know

[RowerB]

The tour has not gone very well so far, but at least we had a laugh today.

We’ll see what happens when they hit the hills.

[spyretto]

I really can't understand what people find in things like the Tour de France ( of F1 for that matter ). Maybe my mind is not organised enough in circlular motions to appreciate the perplexities and complexities of the "sport". All I know is that it feautures some small skinny guys wearing a saucepan on the heads and having to complete some ridiculously tough route, whereby half of them will go to the hospital from exhaustion or dehydration.


WOW I'm "watching" the highlights now and I'm having a tremendous laugh!

yeah

But Le Triplettes De Bellevile, that was really good. Maybe even better than the Tour de France

[PowerPuff Grrl]

But Le Triplettes De Bellevile, that was really good. Maybe even better than the Tour de France

Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[Lux]

Lance is in the overall lead by 53 seconds. and there was a huge spill today..it was huuge, so prob everyone got the same time who fell.

[coolasfcuk]

Originally Posted by spyretto

I really can't understand what people find in things like the Tour de France ( of F1 for that matter ).

I am with you on this, spy

Maybe my mind is not organised enough in circlular motions to appreciate the perplexities and complexities of the "sport". All I know is that it feautures some small skinny guys wearing a saucepan on the heads and having to complete some ridiculously tough route, whereby half of them will go to the hospital from exhaustion or dehydration.

Brilliant laugh!

[RowerB]

Standings of main contenders with times back from yellow –

Vinokourov - 1:02
Basso - 1:26
Ullrich - 1:36
Kloden - 1:50
Karpets - 2:13
Beloki - 2:43
Valverde - 3:24
Evans - 3.29
Rogers - 4:11
Mayo - 5:48

I wouldn’t mind seeing any of these win the tour, but I find it hard to support Basso because he rides for Riis.

[haku]

At least Armstrong lost the yellow jersey today, but he'll probably get it back when they hit the Alps in 2 days, unless he has a major blackout like what happened to Indurain in his last tour.

[RowerB]

I was hoping Evans would win today’s stage, but he couldn’t handle it when the paced was stepped up.
Standings of main contenders with times back from yellow –

Basso – 2:40
Valverde – 3:16
Ullrich – 4:02
Kloden – 4:16
Evans – 5:55

Alps again tomorrow. Maybe it will be a better day.

[nikki]

Lance Armstrong is back in the leaders yellow jersey after stage 10, Haku. Oh, and Evgeni Petrov has been thrown out after failing a blood test.

Edited because my poor brain is melting in this heat .

[RowerB]

Bad day as Valverde retires with an injured knee. The Lottos did a lot of work for McEwan, but hopefully Evans was not too heavily involved. I think he will win in the mountains tomorrow.

EDIT 16/07/05
Evans looked good to the foot of the final climb, but then he just ran out of petrol.